I Hear A New World

「大西洋の両側で100万枚の売り上げを記録し、アメリカでナンバー・ワンになった最初の英国のポップ・シングル」ことエコーの中に宇宙を見つけたトーネイドーズの「テルスター」をはじめ60年代に数多くのヒットを生み出しながらも67年2月、ホロウェイ・ロードの彼の自宅兼スタジオで 元トーネイドーズのベーシストHEINZ BURTから没収したというショットガンで女性大家を銃殺し自身も即座に自殺、、という衝撃的な最期を遂げた英国が誇る伝説の狂人プロデューサー、ジョー・ミーク。

自身のレーベルTRIUMPHから発表した「世紀の怪盤」「50S/60Sポップス史上最大の問題作」との呼び声高い実験モンド・ロケンロー・ムード・ムシ声・スペース・軽音楽・ステレオフォニック・サウンド・アドヴェンチャー傑作『私は新しい世界の音を聴いた』。ブライアン・ウィルソンの『SMILE』よりもずっと早く自らの妄想を音盤に閉じ込めつつ軽々とポップの外宇宙へ飛び出すことに成功したこの作品は、当時「パート1」と「パート2」の2枚のEPに分けてひっそりとリリース(「パート2」は頓挫。)された激レア盤でした。エコーの中に神を見つけた狂気の天才音楽家が聴いた「新しい音」とは。

In 1960, Joe Meek -- already thinking in terms that couldnt be constrained by the limits of the days technologies and marketing strategies -- devised a concept LP of sorts that speculated about the nature of life on the moon (this was almost ten years before Apollo 11). Working with a group of musicians he dubbed the Blue Men, this outer space music fantasy tried to conjure the mood of the cosmos with the clavioline, a Hawaiian guitar, a rinky-dink piano, and then-futuristic electronic noises and sound effects. Listening today, the largely instrumental work sounds futuristic in a very dated way, especially the Chipmunks-like, electronically sped-up voices that were meant to simulate those little green men. As Monty Pythons Flying Circus would say, it all sounds a bit silly, but its an interesting insight into his unique production techniques -- the sounds he sculpted for Magnetic Field, for instance, are a clear forerunner of the electronic pulses that open and close Telstar. Only four tracks from the opus were released at the time, on a super-rare EP; 30 years later, the RPM CD I Hear a New World presented the full work to the public for the first time. The 2001 RPM Special Edition release of I Hear a New World adds a 35-minute spoken monologue from 1962 in which Meek talks about his life, career, recording equipment, and production/working methods. The fidelity is hissy and scratchy (although quite comprehensible) and it gets dull as Meek takes a detailed tour of his studio sans visuals, but if youre enough of a Meek fan to seek out I Hear a New World in the first place, its likely youll find this a significant bonus. Theres also an enhanced CD track with a three-minute 1964 TV interview clip of Meek, though its playable only on PCs, not Macs. ~ Richie Unterberger